W1 Resurfaces with Florida Card

W1 president Jack Bateman has been promising for a while that his Warrior One (W1) promotion was going to return in 2011. Now its finally here. After a year off, Bateman is returning with a US based W1.

According to a Cage Potato report by Mike Russell, W1 Reloaded will be held in Miami, Florida on October 15 in the Bank United Center. The event is to be headlined between two former UFC Heavyweights Jeff Monson and Gabriel Gonzaga. Kim Couture will also be on the card.

The promotion, which was loaded with Canadian talent during it previous years of operation, will have only one Canadian fighting for them in this American incarnation of W1 – Tom “The Bomb” Waters. Waters is 3-2 in W-1 action and has not fought in only one W1 event. Waters (4-2) will face Alan Arzeno (4-4).

Halifax card had ninja and Rogers on the card couple fairly big names. Monson vs Gonzaga doesn’t sound like a very interesting fight to me. That Halifax card had a couple names on it but it kinda fell apart in the weeks leading up to it.

I enjoyed that W-1 card but the problem is the match ups weren’t that appealing as far as the names went. Rogers was a draw but he was paired off with the then 19-21 Ruben Villareal. Ninja took on Boughton who’s a tough guy but was only 4-1. Even the hometown guy Roger Hollett fought Mychal Clark (7-12)
Still though Ive got a lot of respect for Warrior-1 and what their doing

“We are always clear that we are not looking to be the next UFC like everyone else. We are looking to be an alternative. The Pepsi to their Coke, or the Burger King to their McDonalds.”

That is our long term goal….
For now we just want to put on good shows that fans and fighters will like…
What is the point of doing something if we do not have both short and long term goals….
Also in that same interview I said…

“We have plans in the work for a year from now, two years from now, five years from now and ten years from now.”

We have goals, we have a plan and we intend to work the plan…simple…

Time will tell if we are on the right track…
In the mean time no one can accuse us of putting on boring shows…

Ian, you are a good friend and a smart dude and I meant no disrespect.

But people who work every day in the field and consume an insane amount of MMA media all see an exhausting amount of “The Number 1 MMA show in Canada”, “One of the top MMA shows in the world”, “Soon to be the top MMA organization anywhere”, “The best MMA show outside of the UFC”, etc etc etc.

So much so that, when we see any “sizzle” claims, many MMA people just categorize the show into a heap with the others, a heap of dreamers that don’t have enough knowledge of the global MMA market to know that these conquest concepts are ridiculous.

I know that is not the case with you, as you are a very smart guy who loves the sport, and not the case with Jack, who is a dedicated promoter.

But man, c’mon. Its 2011. There’s 60 similar start-up shows , each one boasting ufc vet vs ufc vet in the main and co-main. Some of them have 10 years of experience and 10 years worth of goodwill from working hard in the business and 10 years worth of contacts and connections.

You guys have the brains, skills, and work ethic to make a successful show. Don’t cheapen your brand by being like everyone else and making crazy claims that will make insiders question your credibility.

Just do great work and take good care of fighters and please fans and that will speak for itself.

Okay it’s on…you and me with dueling pistols at 20 paces and we can settle it like gentleman
=) LOL

Of course I take no offense to this…

This is an open forum and EVERYONE is welcome to share their opinion…

You said….
“I know that is not the case with you, as you are a very smart guy who loves the sport…”

Me a smart guy….you obviously got me confused with another dude….lol

And you are right there are many mma companies out there and many who have been around alot longer than us and have connections and good will and so forth…

By no means are we disrespecting them and every show that succeeds and does well makes the sport more accepted and opens more doorways for the rest of us….

We have never called out a promoter or promotion and we won’t ever….there is room for everyone…
We have heard people talk bad about us and it’s their right to talk about whatever they want…
We would rather spend our time putting shows together…this in fact is rear for me or Jack to even respond to any comment good, bad in between or indifferent lol

So I can speak for Jack and myself that we wish them the best of luck…their success is our success in many ways….

Now for the record I nor Jack never claimed to be…

“The Number 1 MMA show in Canada”, “One of the top MMA shows in the world”, “Soon to be the top MMA organization anywhere”, “The best MMA show outside of the UFC” or any thing like that…

That being said however….Our goal is as I mentioned before… “we are not looking to be the next UFC like everyone else. We are looking to be an alternative. The Pepsi to their Coke, or the Burger King to their McDonalds.”

We are not there yet…but that is our goal…
In order to get there we know we have to work hard and put on consistent good shows…

And in order to do that we need and have a plan…

“We have plans in the work for a year from now, two years from now, five years from now and ten years from now.”

Will we hit our goal…maybe…we believe so…we will ultimately let the fans who buy tickets and the fighters decide…ultimately they will decide our success….and if we work hard and do the right things it will be a success

For now we put on good shows…

We have a goal to be highly respected brand and we do not disguise that we have a target and goal to work towards…

By definition WE MUST HAVE A GOAL….

There is an old saying from a Russian writer and philosopher named Leo Tolstoy that goes….

“He who aims at nothing hits it with extra ordinary accuracy…”

We choose not to aim at nothing but we choose to aim at being a great “brand B” show…and we shall do that as you said by “great work and take good care of fighters and please fans”…

Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…but we do have a destination in mind and we will get there…one step at a time…one show at a time..one fan at a time…

Dude, seriously. THIS is the kind of thoughts and talk and ideas that are important.

REAL thoughts. REAL talk. REAL ideas.

This is where you should be goin. You guys are individuals. Be individual.

All that canned “I’m just happy to be nominated amongst great actors like Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson” and “I’d like to thank Simon Cowell for the feedback” and “I’d really like to thank the fans, I’d be nowhere without them”-type MTV rehearsed over-publicist-raped jargon is one of the weak points to this sport (and the anoying things about all entertainment) right now.

Everyone talks the same. Everyone acts the same. Everyone tries to play roles.

Its like people who put on shows are playing the role of promoters and saying what we all think promoters should say and doing what we all think promoters should do, with fighters who all act like fighters should act and thank the fans and their teams after each fight, with a commentator who talks about “the accumulation of damage” or “knock out power in both hands” and a couple of ring girls that all look the same. After the fight, photographers post pictures that all look the same on websites with similar names and interviewers ask all the same questions to fighters who will give all the same answers….

You guys are different. Think different. be different. Have some fun. Break the mold.

That seems to be the popular opinion Joe. I don’t like to respond to people who hide behind fake names, but I don’t think it’s Mark. Mark has balls to stand behind what he says and wouldn’t hide behind a fake name in my opinion.
Who ever Ryan Farse is has no balls.